Brunswick
After 50 years of providing holiday gifts to needy families — since 1985, $1.1 million worth of donations to 20,354 children — the Santa Claus Fund ceased operation. The group gave leftover items to the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers.
Augusta
Togus VA Medical Center librarian Jessica Garsed brought home $53,000 in Jeopardy! money after a three-night win streak on the show. She plans to use the cash to take a rail trip across Canada.
[inpost_leaderboard_middle_1]Portland
For its charitable initiatives, sustainability measures, and use of local grains, Allagash Brewing became Maine’s first brewery (and eighth company) to get Certified B Corp status, an honorific bestowed by a nonprofit org on businesses that contribute to the public good.
Acadia National Park
An Interior Department directive to treat e-bikes the same as regular bikes means the motorized bikes will be allowed on the park’s carriage roads. Previously, only people with disabilities were permitted to use motorized bikes in the park.
Unity
Following years of fundraising, the Maine Harvest Credit Union opened for business. It’s Maine’s first credit union specially geared toward small business in agriculture and food, from dairy farms to breweries to processors.
Baxter State Park
Greg Johnson, of the Summit Project, trekked 150 miles from Cadillac Mountain to Katahdin carrying a stone inscribed with the name of Shawn McKeough Jr., a fallen service member from Westbrook. The org uses hikes to memorialize Maine soldiers killed since 9/11.